COLUMBIA FALLS, Mont., June 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — ViZn Energy Systems, Inc. (“ViZn”) announced today that the staff will be returning as the furlough has been suspended after approximately ten weeks. The company is pleased to announce the round of financing which has been led by a leading energy industry private equity fund and several of the company’s long-standing investors. John Lowell, who has been serving as the Chief Operations Officer for 6 years, has also assumed the role of CEO.

“This technology is just too promising and the markets are learning that Lithium-Ion batteries are a ‘force-fit’ for long duration, 20-year duration, utility scale storage,” Lowell said. “We are going to take care of our partners, our employees and will make good on all purchase orders for customers in the Americas and Europe. We will finalize the field validation work for megawatt scale systems.”

The streamlining of the company will be driven largely by a reduction in the global commercial organization which will likely expand again in 2019. Lowell explains, “As the technology is validated, we will invest in expanding the commercial efforts and super-charging existing partnerships in emerging storage markets like China, India and Australia.”

ViZn Energy’s flow batteries experience zero capacity fade over 20 years and they have full access to 100 percent of their state of charge, giving them significantly more usable output than competitive batteries. They are also uniquely capable of performing both rapid, high-power discharges and slower, long-duration releases at lower power – unlike other comparable storage technologies which can only do one or the other. The inherently safe zinc-iron chemistry uses globally abundant materials and is non-flammable, non-toxic, and easily recyclable at the end of its life.

ViZn Energy Systems Inc. (ViZn), a leading provider of utility-scale energy storage systems, and CMI Energy, a division of worldwide industrial leader Cockerill Maintenance & Ingénierie (CMI), are pleased to announce a strategic partnership on energy storage projects. The initial project features a 400 kilowatt, 3-hour, zinc redox flow battery system that will be integrated with 2 MWp of rooftop solar PV and installed at CMI’s headquarters in Seraing, Belgium.

“CMI is a leading EPC and has the engineering expertise to assimilate our zinc redox flow batteries into projects with business cases like peak shaving, time shifting, and numerous on-grid applications in addition to providing ongoing operations and maintenance over our systems’ 20-year lifespan,” said Ron Van Dell, CEO of ViZn Energy.

CMI Energy has been active in the energy business for 200 years and is a leader in the design and supply of numerous industrial-scale products for electric power plants such as industrial boilers, heat recovery systems, and solar thermal receivers. CMI Energy also utilizes its energy industry expertise to provide EPC and system integrator services for energy storage projects and with ViZn Energy will focus on renewables integration, wastewater treatment, mining, oil and gas, chemical, and other commercial and industrial energy storage use cases.

“We believe ViZn’s technology is very interesting and has significant potential in energy storage applications because it is non-toxic, utilizes abundant raw materials, is highly scalable, and can provide multiple revenue streams,” said Jean-Michel Gheeraerdts, Executive President at CMI Energy. “With renewables generation capacity rapidly growing, energy storage is set to expand globally. CMI Energy has conducted a thorough study and decided to invest in its headquarters with a 2MWp PV system and battery storage, which will help CMI demonstrate technologic and economic viability in both grid-tied and off-grid operations. CMI has created a new business unit dedicated to energy storage and is definitively moving forward to meet growing demand with a bankable solution.”

ViZn is currently delivering systems in the United States, Canada, Central America, Europe, and India. ViZn Energy’s flow batteries are uniquely capable of performing both rapid, high-power discharges and slower, long-duration releases at lower power – unlike other comparable storage technologies which can only do one or the other. This ability to provide a second daily cycle of merchant services can result in 50 percent more revenue per year. The inherently safe zinc-iron chemistry uses globally abundant materials and is non-flammable, non-toxic, and easily recyclable at the end of its life.

About CMI

CMI designs, modernizes and maintains equipment in the domains of energy, defense, industry, the environment and railways. The solutions which CMI offers its clients contribute to improving the economic and technical performance of their production equipment, while reducing their environmental footprint. With turnover of almost 1.2 billion Euros and a highly qualified workforce of over 4,600, the CMI Group is based in Seraing (Belgium) and has locations in Europe, the United States, Africa, Brazil, Russia, India and China. www.cmigroupe.com

During the past 2 years, lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries have emerged as the most widely deployed technology for new stationary energy storage projects. These batteries are typically selected due to the attractive combination of low cost and highly reputable vendors. Driven by increases in manufacturing capacity and sales volumes from the complementary EV industry, Li-ion battery pack costs have decreased dramatically. Yet, despite their popularity, Li-ion batteries are not well-suited for certain stationary storage applications.

Many non-Li-ion battery technology providers are hoping to capitalize on the weaknesses of Li-ion technology and capture a piece of this rapidly growing industry. Non-Li-ion battery providers include both startups and large, well-established corporations. While some non-Li-ion technologies have just emerged from laboratories and been introduced to the market, others have been utilized for decades. Within the stationary storage market, sodium sulfur (NaS) batteries have been widely deployed around the world. However, the high costs for NaS systems compared to alternatives combined with safety concerns due to several battery fire incidents have allowed both Li-ion and new non-Li-ion technologies to capture market share. Vendors are working to take advantage of the strengths of each of the technologies, including non-Li-ion solutions such as flow batteries, advanced lead-acid batteries, and zinc-based batteries.

This Navigant Research Leaderboard evaluated the Strategy and Execution of 13 leading non-Li-ion battery energy storage providers. These companies are rated on 12 criteria: vision; go-to-market strategy; partners; production strategy; technology; geographic reach; sales, marketing, and distribution; product performance; product quality and reliability; product portfolio; pricing; and staying power. Using Navigant Research’s proprietary Leaderboard methodology, vendors are profiled, rated, and ranked with the goal of providing industry participants with an objective assessment of these companies’ relative strengths and weaknesses in the global market for non-Li-ion batteries for grid energy storage.

AUSTIN, TX- ViZn Energy Systems Inc. (ViZn), a leading provider of energy storage systems for utility, C&I, and microgrid applications, has been awarded a 1MWh utility energy storage contract to ensure electrical grid stability in India. ViZn’s systems will be installed and integrated by Raychem RPG at Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) facilities in Puducherry, India.

The country of India is projected by Mercom Capital Group to install over 9 GW of new solar capacity in 2017, which will make it one of the largest solar markets in the world along with China, the United States, and Japan. India is already the fourth largest wind market in the world (behind China, the United States, and Germany) according to the Global Wind Energy Council with over 25 GW of installed wind power generation capacity. PGCIL is an Indian Public Limited Company that has the mandate for planning, coordination, supervision and control over the inter-state transmission systems and the national and regional power grids. The company plans to utilize energy storage to play a crucial role in ensuring the stability of the grid and providing balancing mechanisms.

“India is an exciting, yet virtually untapped, market for energy storage due to the rapid growth of renewable energy and utility infrastructure challenges. For example, there are wind farms & solar farms that are curtailed over 30 percent annually. The Indian grid is adding significant amounts of renewable generation — which are inherently variable and intermittent by nature — so to ensure the stability of the grid, balancing mechanisms in the form of battery energy storage systems will play a crucial role. Energy storage can resolve T&D issues, better integrate clean energy, offer businesses reliable and resilient power, and cost effectively enable microgrids for the 20 percent of the population that does not have grid access,” said Ron Van Dell, President, and CEO of ViZn Energy Systems. “Raychem is a highly respected energy and infrastructure company and we look forward to working with them on our initial entry to the Indian market.”

Raychem RPG has been in business for almost 30 years as a leading enabler of energy technology solutions that improve the performance, reliability, and economy of the electrical grid. “ViZn’s zinc-iron flow batteries are a great value given their excellent total cost of ownership over 20 years,” said Nitin Sharma, Head – Solar & EMS of Raychem. “We selected ViZn because their system will provide maximum power and cycles for 20 years with no degradation. Grid stabilization is a high-stress application and ViZn is quite unique in their ability to execute without HVAC equipment in a harsh tropical climate that often exceeds 120°F in the summer.”

The ViZn flow batteries are housed in shipping containers that do not require cooling systems and are easily interconnected to meet a project’s power and energy requirements. ViZn Energy’s flow batteries experience zero capacity fade over 20 years and they have full access to 100% of their state of charge, giving them significantly more usable output than competitive batteries. Uniquely, they are also capable of performing both rapid, high-power discharges and slower, long-duration releases at lower power (unlike other storage technologies that can only do one or the other). This enables utilities, C&I customers, and other end users to stack applications and incorporate multiple value streams. The inherently safe zinc-iron chemistry uses globally abundant materials and is non-flammable, non-toxic and easily recyclable at the end of life.

Our mission:

We are committed to a renewable energy-powered future that is enabled by reliable and safe energy storage. Together with our partners, we are poised to modernize the world’s grid and deliver electricity where there otherwise would be none.